Every place has something that makes it unique from every other place. Many of those places are simply beautiful. The distinctive beauty of Northern California has been put on display by the LPGA and PGA Tours with their fall events. They have provided the world with a potential new destination for luxury golf vacations.
Blackhawk Country Club
Set among the rolling hills in and around Danville, golf in California is at its best. The LPGA Tour stop is set on the site that was once home to the Blackhawk Thoroughbred Ranch, Blackhawk Country Club. It is a private club, but it is a gorgeous example of what the area has to offer. Plus, there are ways to play even the most private of clubs, except maybe Augusta National.
You see it in many desert courses, but there's something about the combination of green groves of trees among brown grass, rolling hills, and the lush greenery of a golf course. Blackhawk has found that place. It's simply gorgeous.
Golf course superintendents Lonnie Stevens and Luis Camarillo, in charge of the two championship courses at Blackhawk, Lakeside and Falls, have provided TV viewers and visitors with the ultimate in a golf viewing experience. Their preparation and maintenance of the courses have given the courses a fact that original course designers, Bruce Devlin, Robert Von Hagge, designers of Lakeside and Ted Robinson, designer of the Falls course, must have envisioned.
Here's a brief rundown of the Blackhawk Courses:
Lakeside Course - Opened in 1981, and redesigned in 2001 by the Graves and Puscusso firm, the course measures over 6,900 yards. It has been rated by the Northern California Golf Association as one of its ten most difficult courses.
Falls Course - Opened in 1986, the course is approximately 6,700 yards. The most compelling features are its five lakes, a waterfall set as the backdrop for the 11th green, and dramatic elevation changes.
Blackhawk is private, but golf in Northern California is available to everyone at CordeValle.
CordeValle Golf Course
Have you ever seen a place and thought, "Wow, I'd like to be right there!" Not a general location, or even a more narrow area (like the back nine at some course, or the south of France) but a pinpoint spot on the map. When coverage of the PGA Tour's Frys.com Open cuts away to the leaderboard or as they go to commercial, a camera was set among the hills overlooking the golf course and valley. It seems to be right below a grove of trees and it's simply beautiful!. It's one of "those" places. Golf in California has never had a better ad as that one camera shot.
Unlike Blackhawk, CordeValle is a golf resort in San Martin, just south of San Jose. The lush natural beauty of the valley and surrounding hill is awe-inspiring, even as fall ushers in dormant grasses and begins to take the green away.
Robert Trent Jones, Jr. undoubtedly sees this course as one of his masterpieces. It would have been tough to build a bad course on the 260 acres where CordeValle is set, but Jones maximized the variety given to him; elevation changes, meadows, streams, hill peaks, and canyons. The result was a fantastic, 7,100-plus yard course that is sure to be a magnet for drawing golfers to the area, especially after its inaugural PGA Tour tournament.
If you aren't convinced about what the course offers, here's a sampling:
- #7 Best Course You Can Play in California (Golfweek)
- Premier Resorts: Best in Your Area: California's Best Golf, no. 4 & Best Lodging, no. 2 (Golf.com)
- #21 on the 2009 75 Best Golf Resorts in North America list (Golf Digest)
- 2009 World's Best Golf Hotels, #19 in the United States (Golf Digest)
That's not all, but all there's room for.
You can find these two clubs, and all they have to offer, at CordeValle.com and BlackhawkCC.org.
The pro tours have gotten it right by showcasing these Northern California golf courses in the fall. There's no other place on Earth like it.
Alan L. Hammond - In addition to his Suite 101 Golf coverage, Alan is an editor and writer for SportsMD Media LLC, which publishes GolfersMD.com and ...
